Central City

Climbing out of Denver, I really had to go to the bathroom. I had missed one exit that seemed to have a gas station or restaurant as I was passing a truck, so I decided to get off at the next one, as there weren't many places in that stretch of road. The exits are pretty good on the interstate in that they are marked "no services" if there aren't any, so I took the next exit since it didn't have that sign.

Once I was off the highway there was nothing there at all, except a road heading up the mountain to a place called Central City, so I took that, figuring it would be just around the corner. It turned out to be 8 miles up, and straight up at that! Gave the little Corolla quite the workout, had to take it down to 2nd gear quite often. I figured now that I was off the road I might as well just head there, as I didn't know where the next exit would be on the highway.

When I got to town, it was a really pretty little place! I took a couple of photos, but didn't see anyplace to eat and I didn't want to get too far behind schedule since I didn't know what the mountain drive would be like. Central City was a gold rush town back in the mid-1850's, and it still looks kind of like one. It's now a casino town, there are casinos in the old stores.

Oh, and once I was back on the interstate, it turns out that if I had stayed on the road about one more minute, I would have arrived at the usual cluster of fast-food places and gas stations. Oh well, if I had done that, I would have missed Central City!